Sunday , December 15, 2024

John Stewart

Starting as an editor on Bank Network News at Faulkner & Gray, John ultimately played a key role in starting, editing, and publishing many of F&G's flagship publications, including Credit Card Management, Card Technology, Card Marketing, and Collections & Credit Risk. Before co-founding Boland Hill Media, John was a group publisher at Thomson Media responsible for a $10 million division embracing magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

Bitcoin Cash One Year Later: Cheaper Than Bitcoin, But Still Number 4 on the Hit Parade

One year after the hard fork that created it, Bitcoin Cash is in some ways mimicking the digital currency it was spawned from. Bitcoin Cash’s price at $693 Monday morning has slid by about $1,000 in the past three months, according to CoinMarketCap.com. And it’s well under the $4,091 peak …

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On a Hot Streak, the ACH Network Has Racked up 5%-Plus Growth in 12 of the Last 14 Quarters

The growth surge at the nation’s automated clearing house network shows no signs of slowing down. The payments system handled 5.68 billion transactions in the quarter ended June 30, a 6.2% increase year-over-year, according to numbers from Herndon, Va.-based NACHA, the network’s governing body. The network has now notched growth …

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Will It Or Won’t It? Square Stays Vague on OCC Charter in Second-Quarter Earnings Call

Will Square Inc. apply for a national banking charter, now that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has opened the door to financial-technology firms? As of late Wednesday, the answer remains unclear. “We’re really well-positioned to broaden access to the financial system, which is our core purpose,” said …

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Fintech Firms Can Now Apply for National Bank Charters As the OCC Opens the Door

Financial technology firms, many of which command significant positions in the payments business, can now apply to become national banks. Moving on a proposal it’s had under consideration for months, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced on Tuesday it will begin accepting bank-charter applications from fintech firms. …

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Reports Show How Fast P2P Payments Are Growing for Bank And Nonbank Providers

Long an afterthought in payments, peer-to-peer transfers are top-of-mind in the industry just now, and this week three reports emerged to show just how fast the payment type is growing for bank and nonbank networks alike. The bank-owned Zelle network processed 100 million transactions totaling $28 billion in the three …

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PayPal Looks to Cash in on P2P And Stresses It’s Shopping for More Acquisitions

Person-to-person payments are hot these days, and PayPal Holdings Inc. has one of the hottest products in the market with its Venmo service. But as PayPal revealed Wednesday, Venmo can create some friction for its parent even as it vitally expands its payments business. PayPal reported $14.2 billion in payment …

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More Merchants, Not So Much Spending: A Mixed Report on Insider Sentiment on Crypto

When it comes to the potential for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be a real-world payment method, users, investors, and blockchain executives have a somewhat mixed view on the matter. Asked whether they think more merchants will start accepting crypto this year, 49% agree and 23% strongly agree that they …

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China’s Alipay Comes to More Than 50 Guess Stores As the Payment Service’s U.S. Expansion Continues

Alipay, the China-based mobile and online payments service, has been active over the past year signing up U.S. merchants, and on Tuesday it announced its latest addition: apparel seller Guess? Inc., which will accept Alipay at more than 50 of its stores in New York City, Las Vegas, and California, …

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Cryptocurrency ‘Has Legs,” Payroc Says, So It’s Moving Toward a Merchant Acceptance Rollout Later This Year

Issues like price volatility, pokey transaction times, and sheer reputational risk have left many processors and independent sales organizations on the sidelines when it comes to cryptocurrency acceptance. Many, but not all. The latest entrant, and the largest so far, in this nascent market is Payroc LLC, which later this …

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Crypto Gets a Boost As Bitcoin Surges And Mastercard Scores a Networking Patent

After weeks of listless trading, Bitcoin has rallied over the past 24 hours, shooting up from the high-$6,000s to the mid-$7,000s in a move that has brought new energy to other leading cryptocurrencies. Coincidentally, Mastercard Inc. on Tuesday was awarded a patent for a system that could allow users of …

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